Islamic Jihad Denies Reed Kidnaping
Islamic Jihad today denied it kidnaped American educator Frank Herbert Reed in West Beirut and called upon the “real kidnapers to come forth boldly and shoulder the responsibility.”
The denial from the Shia Muslim extremists came in a typewritten statement delivered to the West Beirut office of a Western news agency along with a photograph of David Jacobsen, one of four other Americans missing in Lebanon.
Reed, 53, director of the Lebanese International School, was kidnaped Tuesday by four men toting pistols with silencers as he drove to play golf at a war-scarred course on the city’s outskirts.
Shortly after the abduction, an anonymous caller claiming to speak for Islamic Jihad, a group believed linked to Iran, told a Western news agency that the organization kidnaped Reed because he was a spy for the CIA.
That caller said Islamic Jihad would soon distribute a picture of Reed, but no picture has been released.
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